Dead Man Walking: Living By Day, Dead By Night

Zane sat silently in the Humvee's driver's seat throughout the entire night. He had much to think about, and until now, he seldom had the time to stop and do it. But as the hours passed by, the sun eventually rose with the dawn.

And when it did so, the two women in the backseat awoken to find Zane exactly where he had been when they passed out the night before. Wiping the drool from her mouth, and off the window which she had been resting her head on, Elena jolted in surprise when she realized Zane was watching her from the rear-view mirror.

"Jesus Christ, Zane! Didn't you get any sleep last night?"

There was an emotionless tone in Zane's voice as he reminded the young crimson haired beauty why exactly that was a stupid question.

"I don't need any, remember?"

Elena, of course, felt like a fool when she realized what she had asked the man and shifted her gaze away from him in a slight fit of embarrassment. But when Zane spoke again, shifting his gaze towards the side mirrors of the vehicle, she blushed profusely.

"Besides… Somebody has to keep watch, and considering the two of you need your sleep, it is only natural that role falls to me."

Perhaps Elena was reading into things that were not there, but she could have sworn that Zane's words contained a hint of affection. But when she gazed upon his stoic expression, she quickly realized that she might have been imagining it.

Olivia woke up shortly after, groaning as she did so, complaining about her two partners in crime as if they were being a nuisance.

"Stop it… You're so noisy… Just five more minutes!"

Without even realizing it, Olivia had been using Elena's thighs as a pillow, and when the girl realized this, she slapped the shit out of her former homeroom teacher.

"Just where do you think you are resting your head?"

The stinging pain of being slapped on the cheek instantly awoke Olivia as she cried to Zane, asking him to do something about her mistreatment.

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She was clearly awake, but perhaps only slightly, as the woman who was in her early thirties pestered Zane in an almost childlike state.

"Zane… Zane… Zane! Elena just slapped me! Are you even paying attention to me!?!"

Zane remained completely quiet, as he did not say a word, and instead addressed the two women about what had happened the previous night. He did not dare mention the special ability he discovered after killing the awakened survivors from the safe zone, instead he asked them what had happened back at the police station.

"Olivia, enough, act your damn age! Besides, I have questions about what happened last night."

Zane had never witnessed Olivia like this before, because back at the school she always slept in late, and while at Elena's home she always had coffee to wake her up. But for whatever reason, when it was early in the morning, and the mature silver haired beauty was half asleep, she became incredibly childish. So much so that the shout pouted at Zane, not defending her from Elena's actions.

Instead, Elena was the more mature of the two as she recounted everything that happened. From them waking up to the sound of motorcycles and noticing that Zane had gone out without telling them to the battle they had where they killed the bandits.

But what was most surprising, was the fact that when Elena mentioned freeing the slaves, who were supposed to be traded in the Safe Zone, she seemed a bit troubled by the fact that they fled deeper into the city, in fear of Elena and Olivia. As if they were monsters.

Zane was only slightly surprised to hear this. There were other groups of wandering nomads in the city and within its proximity. These nomads were being rounded up and enslaved by marauders to be sold to the Safe Zone for blood crystals. Which had apparently become a means of currency.

This coincided with the fact that Zane had discovered other awakened during his travels, but they were extremely low levels, with the highest of them being level 3. How did Zane know this, because every time he consumed one of their hearts, he would gain all the XP they had gained from their consuming of blood crystals.

And the fact that the system would tell him what level the heart was. This meant that he and the girls had a significant power advantage over the other awakened within the city. For the time being, but if they were not careful, this gap would increase.

And then Zane remembered something that Elena had said. She had mentioned how she spilled first blood, and because of this, Zane was quick to ask her to do something for him.

"Elena… Go into your title screen real quick and tell me if you have a new achievement unlocked."

Elena, of course, did not question Zane's orders, and was quick to do as she was told, where she was shocked to find that she indeed had an achievement unlocked, a hidden achievement, the same one Zane had unlocked.

It gave her a significant boost in XP bringing her level up from 7 to 9. When she realized this, she was quick to speak her thoughts on the matter.

"Murderer! How? They threatened to enslave us, and use our bodies for their own pleasure! I have every right to shoot those bastards!"

Zane did not comment on this, though he felt something bitter deep within his heart. Why was he bitter? Though he did not know it, there was a primal instinct inside of him that despised the idea of any other man touching Elena, or Olivia, for that matter.

He just simply didn't understand what the emotion called jealousy was, as until now he had never experienced it before. Thus, he suppressed this emotion, and instead asked Olivia the same question.

Since Olivia had not opened fire until after they were attacked, she did not have the hidden achievement, and pouted as she claimed how unfair this was.

"What the hell? I killed more of those bastards then Elena, why don't I get the XP?"

After calming the woman down, Zane came to a compromise, all of the blood crystals the two girls had looted from the bandits, which evidently was a significant amount, would go to Olivia to help balance out their levels. Thus, while Elena was now level 9, Olivia would become level eight after consuming the blood crystals.

But unfortunately for her, due to the effects of the debuff known as "corruption," they would have to wait until they found a safe haven before Olivia could consume them all. As for Elena, she quickly discussed with Zane the best way to distribute her four new attribute points, which ended up looking like the following.

---

[User: Elena Pryce]

[Race: Human]

[Level: 9]

[XP: 0/8,500]

[HP: 130/130]

[Attributes]

[Strength: 15]

[Dexterity: 13]

[Constitution: 13]

[Intelligence: 13]

[Wisdom: 12]

[Charisma: 11]

[Skills]

[Time Distortion – Tier II]

---

Once the attributes had been set, and Olivia had finally woken up from her half-asleep state. Zane gave them the rundown on what their new plan was. Like the last one, to find some place safe for the night. Only this time, they were doing so specifically so Olivia could consume her blood crystals in peace.

With this in mind, Zane and the girls set out on the decrepit streets of their city looking for a temporary refuge.

---

It had been days since the Horde King known as Bart had sent out his stalkers to search for this other Horde King which was allegedly hiding in his domain. Yet, the Stalkers could not find anything out of the ordinary.

After all, the city was large, and this rival was clearly hiding among the living. Perhaps masking himself as one of these new superhumans who were actively diminishing the numbers of Bart's horde.

It had gotten to the point where actively searching for his rival was expending too many of his resources. Because of this, Bart was ultimately forced to pull back his scouts, and instead employ them as assassins, designed to covertly take out the squads of Awakened who were going out into the city streets and farming the Undead for Xp.

Though Bart had not forgotten about this hidden peer, one who was so cowardly as to not properly pay respect to Bart. He ultimately had larger concerns, and thus he continued to monitor the situation within the Safe Zone from afar.

All the while enacting a mobile line of defense, sending his more elite units in the form of Abominations and Stalkers to intercept the Awakened squads, which were dealing a significant blow to his horde and its members.

With a spiteful tone in his voice, Bart clicked his tongue, while cursing out humanity for its unforeseen resilience.

"Damned pests… Just die already!"